Custom themes & block themes
Built from your design system, not a marketplace theme bent into shape. Block themes with theme.json where it fits, classic themes where your stack still needs one.
Build · Engineering
Custom WordPress development without the lock-in.
We build on core WordPress APIs and Gutenberg — not on a page builder that holds your content hostage. That means your editors can work without us, your site stays fast, and any competent WordPress developer can pick it up after we hand it over. That is what our custom WordPress development work is built to fix.
- Content model built around your business, not a template
- Editors get blocks they can actually use
- Documented handover — no dependency on us
The problem
When businesses come to us for custom WordPress development.
Every change needs a developer
Your marketing team wants to publish a landing page and has to raise a ticket. The page builder that promised freedom turned into a system only one person understands, and that person has left.
The theme fights your content
Your business has products, locations, case studies and events. Your theme has posts and pages. Everything gets forced into the wrong shape, and the workarounds become the architecture.
It works, but nobody can maintain it
Core files edited directly, logic buried in a theme that cannot be updated, no documentation. It runs fine until the day it does not, and then nobody can safely touch it.
Forty plugins doing the work of five
Each one solved a problem on the day it was installed. Together they load megabytes of assets on every page, overlap in what they do, and half are no longer maintained by anyone.
How it works
How it actually runs.
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Discovery
Who edits, what they publish, what the site has to integrate with.
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Content model
Post types, taxonomies and fields agreed before a line of template code.
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Block system
The set of blocks and patterns your editors will actually assemble pages from.
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Build
Theme, blocks and integrations, on staging, reviewed against real content.
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Test
Coding standards, cross-browser, accessibility and load before launch.
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Handover
Documentation and a walkthrough, so your team owns it from day one.
Results
What the work produced.
East Buffalo Development Corporation
A development corporation with many departments
Community-based real estate development on Buffalo's Eastside — affordable housing, vacant home reactivation, renovation, senior programmes. Residents need one department; the site has to serve all of them. Built the site as a set of departments rather than a services page, so a resident lands on the programme that applies to them and the corporation's work as a whole is still visible.
Imperial Consulting Services Group
Four businesses that had to look like one
Consulting, training, media and biometric fingerprint services under a single brand — a range broad enough that a visitor could easily conclude the firm does none of it properly. Built the site so each division has its own room while the group reads as one organisation, with new services (biometrics, notary and identity) able to launch without a redesign.
Capabilities
The custom WordPress development stack we work in.
Core & editor
- Gutenberg blocks
- Block themes
- theme.json
- Block patterns
- Advanced Custom Fields
- Custom post types
- Custom taxonomies
Languages & tooling
- PHP 8
- JavaScript / React
- TypeScript
- SCSS
- Composer
- npm
- WP-CLI
- Git
Integration
- WP REST API
- GraphQL
- Webhooks
- Action Scheduler
- OAuth
- CRM & ERP sync
- Headless front ends
Quality
- WordPress Coding Standards
- PHPCS
- PHPUnit
- Cross-browser QA
- WCAG 2.1 AA
- Staging & Git deploys
Engagement
Three ways this usually runs.
Discovery sprint
Fixed fee
A content model, a block inventory and a technical plan you can build from — with us or with anyone else. Often the cheapest way to find out what a project really involves.
- 2–3 weeks
- No obligation to continue
- Yours to take elsewhere
Project build
Fixed price after discovery
Scoped work with dated milestones — a new theme, a block system, a migration or an integration layer. Quoted fixed so there are no surprises mid-project.
- Dated milestone plan
- Staging with your real content
- Documented handover
Embedded developer
Monthly
One of our developers working inside your team on your board and in your standups, for teams that have the roadmap but not the WordPress depth.
- Rolling monthly
- Your tools, your process
- Cancel any time
Questions
Custom WordPress development questions, answered plainly.
If your custom WordPress development question is not covered here, send us the details and we will reply with a straight answer.
Why not just use Elementor or Divi?
Page builders are genuinely good for small sites built quickly. They become a liability at scale: they add significant page weight, they store your content in their own markup so leaving means rebuilding, and complex layouts get slower to edit rather than faster. If you already run one and it works, we will say so — we do not rebuild for the sake of it.
What is a block theme, and do we need one?
A block theme lets templates and global styles be edited in WordPress itself rather than in code. It suits content-led sites where the team wants layout control. Classic themes still make sense when your stack depends on extensions that have not caught up. We choose based on what your site has to do, not on what is newest.
Will our team be able to edit the site without a developer?
That is the point of the block system. Your editors get a set of blocks and patterns designed for the pages you actually publish, with brand rules built in so nothing can be knocked out of alignment. We hand over with a walkthrough and documentation, and most teams stop needing us for day-to-day publishing entirely.
Do you always rebuild, or can you work with our existing theme?
Both. A lot of our work is extending and repairing what already exists — a child theme done properly, a few custom blocks, an integration that was missing. We audit first and recommend a rebuild only when the existing code makes ongoing work more expensive than starting again.
Should we go headless?
Usually not. Headless makes sense when you are serving several front ends from one content source, or your front-end team already lives in React and owns that layer. It costs you preview, some editor convenience and a chunk of budget. For a single marketing site, a well-built WordPress front end is faster to ship and cheaper to run.
What happens if we stop working with you?
You keep everything and it stays maintainable. We build on core WordPress APIs, follow WordPress Coding Standards, use no proprietary framework and document what we ship. Any competent WordPress developer can pick it up. Clients stay with us because the work is good, not because leaving would be painful.
When do we need custom WordPress development?
When the logic is your business, when the integration has no connector, or when several plugins are chained to fake one feature. Below that, a maintained plugin is the honest recommendation.
The platform itself is documented at wordpress.org.
How do you keep custom code maintainable?
Everything is built on documented hooks and APIs, never by editing core, and functionality lives in a plugin rather than the theme so it survives your next redesign.
Start here
Start your custom WordPress development project.
The more you can tell us, the more useful our first reply will be. No sales sequence — one of the people who would actually do the work reads this.
- We read it and look at your site
- You get a written reply with our honest read
- If it fits, we scope it properly
Prefer email? hello@dotance.com